U.N. wants $60M to help scattered Iraqi refugees (300,000 displaced just since November)

[Kadie]

U.N. wants $60M to help scattered Iraqi refugees
POSTED: 5:13 p.m. EST, January 8, 2007

Story Highlights
• U.N. estimates 3.7 million Iraqis displaced
• 300,000 displaced just since November says U.N.
• About 2,000 a day arriving in Syria alone


UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- As up to 50,000 Iraqis flee their homes every month, the U.N.'s refugee agency said Monday that it will seek $60 million this year to help the roughly 3.7 million people displaced by violence in the war-ravaged nation.

The problem is larger than mere displacement, A U.N. news release states, as women are increasingly forced to resort to prostitution and reports of child labor problems are on the rise.

Also, in Syria, where hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are seeking refuge, about 30 percent of Iraqi children are not in school and more than 10 percent of Iraqi families are headed by women.

Many Iraqis were displaced before the United States launched the Iraq war in 2003, but "increasing numbers of Iraqis are now fleeing escalating sectarian, ethnic and generalized violence," according to the Web site of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.(Watch Iraqis struggle to do their jobs amid constant danger )

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/08/iraq.refugees/index.html?section=cnn_latest